Differing patterns of distribution from source of local and exotic artefacts have been used to set up and modify theories and models of hunter-gatherer social/political networks. Stone hatchets are useful for testing these theories because they do not decay in time. In this research pXRF technology was used to compare 242 hatchets found in south-east South Australia with known local basalt sources, and with distant sources from Central Victoria and Mount Isa. Chemical analysis determined that the great majority of hatchets came from unknown sources of similar, distinctive, stone which, unlike the local basalts, were very low in most elements from Rb to Nb in the periodic table. This majority was similar, but not a match, to stone from Mt William in central Victoria. From their distribution and frequency, this majority of hatchets was probably used as tools, but because they were found across three language areas, I conclude that they were also desirable exchange items. There was no apparent separation of useful and exchange hatchets, a difference from hunter-gatherer models which may have been a result of limited local stone sources. My research also determined that three hatchets found in SESA originated in Mount Isa, extending the distance that Mount Isa hatchets are known to have moved from Lake Eyre/Flinders Ranges to south-east South Australia. One of these was distinctively shaped, matching a type of hatchet known to have originated in Mount Isa. Another three hatchets were determined to have originated near Mt Macedon in central Victoria. These six exotic hatchets were distributed evenly across the three language areas, showing no area with a concentration of power of acquisition. I concluded that the distribution of SESA hatchets from source indicates a strong network between the three language groups, Ngarrindjeri, Bindjali and Buandig prior to European settlement, a network which was highly interactive, evenly spread across Buandig land and the southern areas of their neighbours, and with no evidence of dominance by one group in any language area.

Existing insights into the history of southeast Asian contacts with northern Australia prior to British colonization in 1788 are limited to Macassan visitors and the trepang industry beginning in the early 18th century and perhaps 16th century. Neither historical nor archaeological evidence indicate extension of such contacts to Torres Strait of northeast Australia. To shed further light on this issue, a collection of 16 Asian ceramic sherds surface collected and excavated recently from the islands of Pulu and Mabuyag in Torres Strait were compared to a large database of Southeast and East Asian stoneware jars that are well characterised, elementally, typologically and chronologically. This comparison matched a number of sherds with two jar types with likely production origins in Thailand and southern China. While the surface collected sherds from Pulu sourced to Thailand date probably to the 19th century, the small glazed sherd from Mabuyag island is typical of a southern Chinese decorated jar type dating to c. 1500-1600 C.E. This Chinese sherd is the earliest known Asian artefact in Australia and parallels recent archaeological evidence on the antiquity of contacts between Macassan trepangers and Aboriginal Australians. It is unknown if the Chinese sherd came ashore to Mabuyag through direct contact with Asian traders or from a nearby shipwreck through salvage.

Archaeological use of non-destructive pXRF has been most systematically applied to the classification and provenancing of volcanic glass (obsidian) artefacts. Comparable work has yet to be developed for non-vitreous artefacts. We report results of pXRF analysis for a sample of grey to black (mafic) aboriginal hatchets from Sydney and adjacent coastal regions to the north and south. The study shows both broad and detailed classification is achievable depending on rock type and degree of elemental depletion or enrichment of the samples. PXRF analysis reveals not only distinct patterns of resource use between the three regions of this study but also enables a high degree of geographic resolution in the case of the basalt artefacts of our sample. We conclude that non-destructive pXRF is effective for reliable characterisation of non-vitreous stone artefacts that have a sufficiently complex and enriched compositional signature (i.e., unaltered basalts); with ~50% of the basalt hatchets in our sample matched with spatially and geologically specific sources.

Early historical accounts of inter-group social networks operating between Aboriginal groups in South East Queensland and northern New South Wales, document large gatherings at which elaborate ceremonies and exchange took place. Interpretations of archaeological evidence at sites, which researchers have associated with these ceremonial gatherings, have fuelled arguments that they provided the impetus for increased social complexity during the late Holocene, as evidenced by shifts in land use patterns as well as subsistence and cultural practices. Within these highly complex economic and social alliances, described by early European settlers up until the early 20th century, ground-edged stone hatchets were reported to be one of the most prized items of exchange. This study used non-destructive, portable XRay fluorescence to elementally characterise a sample of basalt ground-edged hatchets from Southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales, as well as a potential range of basalt sources, to assess the complexity of exchange represented. In addition to museum collections, this provenancing study used a community archaeology approach to access additional ground-edged hatchets, curated by rural landholders in South East Queensland. The aim of this research project was to assess two independent but related issues. The first was a critical review of interpretations of the archaeological evidence in South East Queensland from the late Holocene that characterise hunter-gatherers societies in that region as being socially complex. In this review, I found the concept of social complexity, when used in the context of pre-contact Aboriginal communities, to be highly problematic. Not only has the definition of social complexity been vague but interpretations of the evidence to support those arguments ambiguous. Perhaps the most significant omission has been adequate interrogation of the archaeological record to understand the triggers for such an apparent significant social change in pre-contact Australia. The second was a methodological evaluation of the potential of non-destructive geochemical characterisation (portable X-ray fluorescence - pXRF) for investigating the possible geological range represented by this corpus. This pXRF study was unable to match hatchets with geographically specific source locations, due primarily to widespread basalt formations throughout the region and, as a consequence, redundancy in characterisation of sources. So while it was not possible to examine the level of social complexity of inter-group activity, the results do lend weight to arguments of extensive exchange. The community archaeology aspect of this project involved people from non-Indigenous backgrounds but who had collected Aboriginal artefacts from their rural properties. What emerged was a window onto a previously untapped source of information; access to artefacts which had not recorded and first-hand accounts of where they had been found.

The raw material, method of manufacture and modification of a ground-edged hatchet-head found at Vaucluse in Sydney provides evidence for the movement of stone tools from west of the Great Dividing Range to the coast. Such evidence adds new knowledge about social relationships between different groups in southeastern Australia and patterns of exchange that existed in the past.

Ground-edged artifacts were an important part of the Australian Aboriginal toolkit. They had practical day-to-day uses, but some had symbolic and social values that led to their movement across great distances. Australian provenance studies document long-distance Aboriginal exchange systems extending over hundreds of kilometers. The size and complexity of exchange systems and social networks were contingent upon resources and the productivity of a region's environment. Along the fertile, well-watered lands east of the Great Dividing Range, movement of objects may have been geographically more circumscribed than in drier areas to the west. One hundred and twenty-one mafic, ground-edged artifacts from the New South Wales (NSW) Central Coast and 368 geological specimens from potential sources were non-destructively analyzed by portable X-Ray fluorescence spectrometry. Results indicate the existence of a well-used basalt source within the region at Peats Ridge-Popran Creek as well as multiple local and non-local sources up to 430 km from Mangrove Mountain on the NSW Central Coast.